Enemies of football 4 Napoli 1

A quality night of tension, frustration and elation which must rank as one of the most memorable Chelsea nights on the European stage. The result was well deserved and hopefully has poked a huge v-sign towards those who would have preferred no English teams left in Europe if it meant Chelsea reaching the quarter final stage. It was interesting to hear that the ITV commentator shouted, “take that!” when Napoli pulled a goal back.

The opening twenty minutes were pretty woeful and worrying. Chelsea missed a glorious opportunity to open the scoring and then Petr Cech kept us in the game with some stunning saves.

We scored against the run of play but it only reinforced a view I have had for a while – we still have quality in the side but have simply lacked direction and confidence.

Although the comeback was fantastic this really was a team who we should have (on paper at least) not have struggled against so it is hard to put it on a par with previous famous nights against Arsenal, Barcelona and Liverpool… but this was chalk and cheese compared to some of the dross that was served up earlier on in the season.

Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Cech and Cole in particular were outstanding. Substitutions were perfectly made too with Torres coming on for the hapless Sturridge well timed. The ball seemed to stick to his feet like glue (although he still appears timid in front of goal). And as per usual as soon as I started moaning at how ineffective Ivanovic had been he popped up with a stunning winner!

Well done RdM – so far the romantic vision of hoping you succeed is working a treat which obviously means we will now fail to beat Leicester (only kidding!)

As long as we steer clear of the Spanish sides we should have a good chance of progressing to the semis which is where the real action begins. We are behind you Chelsea – come on you Blues!